I think @Arrokoth has summed it up perfectly well! Most of us were going through the same emotions last year. The same anxiety and stress.
At that time, people would be motivating each other in the T-10 days. That thread was amazing (Prelims 2020). I do recommend going through @Patootie 's posts of that time. He would always come up with the motivation we needed in the last 10 days, and a song.
But I think we have @nerdfighter for our song recommendations :)
I think for a community that has given us so much, a formal leaving is definitely in order. And@Arrokoth (as always) has managed to sum it up perfectly :D
Till 6th November, please feel free to ask any doubts. I believe this thread is only for the Daily Targets or so. So you can post your questions in the relevant thread and tag us. I also apologize to those, who I couldn't reply to in the last few days.
Also I wanted to share my 2020 Progress, and this is the apt thread for that. I hope it's seen in a positive/motivating manner.
Tagging@whatonly if she's free to help us.
Q3: Ideally it should be a Feedback Loop something like this:
- Revise Notes
- Give Test/Brainstorm on Questions
- Understand Mistakes/Errors
- Add Content to Notes
Q4: For Prelims, I revised through Tests. I remember how in 2020 we had a discussion on "Active Recall" in Forum. That's the idea basically. I would give a test, mark mistakes + add these to my notes, revise notes and keep giving more and more tests.
For Mains:
- Cover Optional extensively.
- Brainstorm a lot of questions.
- Practice answer writing.
- Revise notes ~ 7-8 times or even more. Unlike Prelims where subconscious knowledge can help, in Mains you must have knowledge in a much more say "active form". This calls for more revisions.
Q5: Can do either. At the end it's about having 1-pager notes on important issues. To each his own.
Q6: Since I have a slightly low score, I'll instead try and give mistakes that can be avoided:
- Don't make essay look like a long GS answer.
- Essay should not be a "patchwork" of different dimensions. By this I mean to say, continuity and smoothness in Essay add a lot to the reading experience for the Examiner.
Q3: Difficult to say. But my guess:
- As long as diagrams are being used to enrich answers/explain better, I see no issue.
- If the examiner feels, diagrams are being used as "space fillers", then it might be an issue.
Anyways, it's difficult to actually put "too many" diagrams on Final Day. Also I read somewhere that one of the top rankers this time used 17 diagrams in GS 1.@Arrokoth Can you confirm/add to this pls?
Q1: Normally October can be used for quickly wrapping up the syllabus. Give maybe 10 days more in November. But post that the focus should be more on Practicing ~ Answer Writing + Brainstorming.
Q2: Your attitude in these 3 months should be that ~ it's a race against time. And when you have so little time, there's no time to be anxious. Also like with other exams, you're here to beat the competition, not the exam.
Q3: I would suggest you do Brainstorming a lot. The same "active recall" idea I mentioned in a post before. That ways you'd force your brain to come up with more and more points in less and less time. Along with this exercise keep revising your notes. Essentially,
To Avoid Blankness = Brainstorming + Revision
Q4: Practice using rigorous time controls at home, so that it is a smooth ride in exam. I started with 7 min/11 min for 10/15 M respectively. Gradually brought it down to somewhere near 6 min/10 min. At times I would write answers in 5.5/9.5 min too. This helps a lot. HOWEVER PLEASE MAKE SURE to adjust your bio-clock back to the actual timings closer to the exam.
Step 2A: I used the following material to brainstorm:
- Vision Topper Copies
- Forum Topper Copies
- Lukmaan Topper Copies
- MGP Tests (unused ones)
- AWFG Tests
- Vision Tests (unused ones)
Step 2B: Wrote answers in:
- MGP Tests (NON-TEST MODE)
- Vision Tests (NON-TEST MODE)
Step 2A and 2B essentially went parallelly.
Step 3: Modify notes. This would mean:
- Add Examples/Ideas or whatever you can find.
- Identify Generic Markers/Dilemmas, as you rightly pointed out
- Add Diagrams, if need be.
Q1: I revised my notes ~ 2 layers (1 layer for some topics). These are mostly just the important IMS questions, either from their notes or test series. After that focused on practicing more and more:
- Did IMS 2020 TS in Practice Mode (only 2 tests in TEST MODE)
- Did IMS 2019 + 2018 TS in Practice Mode.
- Did Shankar 2020 TS + SuccessClap TS for Practice.
- Did PYQ 2011 to 2020 in Practice Mode
- Any other Question Bank/Source
Revised the notes made on the basis of above.
Also revised micro notes (which are formulas + some tricks). See Kanishak Sir's Micro Notes for reference.
Q2: If you haven't done either before. I think do the PYQs from 2011 to 2020. Then move to IMS test series. But if you have done till 2011, then go for Test Series instead of going beyond 2011. This is keeping in mind the paucity of time.
- See a Question. Give yourself few minutes to form a broad outline of dimensions. Think of specific points + case studies + examples + best practices etc. MENTALLY form an answer.
- Compare with with either the Topper Copy or the Solutions given by coaching, as is the case.
- Add relevant material (whatever you feel is important) to your notes. And revise these notes. Then repeat the process. Essentially this is the process.
Basically, REPEAT {Revise - Practice - Modify Notes}
@Asmita_101 Broadly you'll have to focus on 2 things:
- Collection of more content for such issues and topics where you do not have anything.
- Practicing forming answers, so that you can atleast write some "generic points" in such questions.
@sator My advice regarding newspaper: Skip the backlog. Use a coaching compilation to get up-to date with major events. And henceforth, read newspaper regularly.
Q1: Everyone has a different strategy. And you can see this in my and Arrokoth's Case. He decided to go for very little tests and more of base material. I went for "TESTS, TESTS and MORE TESTS" type approach :D
At the end of the day, it all comes down to "reading more content, more number of times". And whether you do it by reading new material or solving more tests is entirely your choice.
Q2: I'll avoid answering this, as my answer would be biased.
Q3: I joined SFG multiple times. In short, extremely helpful. It's however to SUPPLEMENT other test series and NOT SUBSTITUTE because of the basic nature of questions asked.
Q4: Maybe try practicing more philosophical themes. Practice a broad structure, instead of writing the full essay. And do this for multiple Essay Topics. Try reading some Topper Copies too. Maybe that will help.
@Indian_Human If time is less, "delegate" the responsibility of PROBLEM SELECTION to coachings. If you still feel underconfident in a topic, then you can go for basic books. But within these 3 months, it can be avoided. As it becomes difficult to identify the stopping point in a book.
@sjerngal I mean the LEARNING PORTION and BROAD TOPICS must have been covered. That is to say, one should not be joining a course or, say start a new book on World History after 10th November. Also everyone has their own strategy, and if you feel reading a new book is crucial (even in December), please go for it.
TLDR:You're completely on point. Revise more, to write more factually supported relevant points :)
The IDEAL target would ofcourse be 12-13 points substantiated with facts/examples/case studies. But that's not practical. With more practice and revision, you'll move towards specific relevant points. We would still have relevant points (without facts) and generic points. But the number will be lesser.
For Maths People@Celeborn @MikeWozniak @Archand @Master @Infinitybeyondinfinity and others:
Do visit the Telegram Channels of - Vinayak Narwade and Utkarsh Kumar. A lot of helpful content, along with strategy guidance is there. And they are also trying to personally answer doubts whenever possible.